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Foreign investors become net buyers of Korean stocks

Dec. 5, 2014 - 21:40 By Korea Herald
Foreign investors turned to net buyers of South Korean stocks last month, ending their two-month selling streak as monetary stimulus in Europe and China spurred appetite for risky assets, the financial watchdog said Friday.

Offshore investors bought a net 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) worth of local stocks in November, a turnaround from a net sell-off of 2.1 trillion won a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

The total value of their shareholdings came to 438.5 trillion won as of the end of November, accounting for 31.8 percent of the total market capitalization, slightly down from 32.1 percent tallied in the previous month.

The European Central Bank‘s signal for imminent quantitative easing and China’s rate cut wiped out uncertainty and boosted confidence that the two economies’ policymakers were ready to combat against low inflation and support growth.

U.S. investors led the buying spree by purchasing a net 892.8 billion won, while those from Singapore and Ireland invested a net 454.2 billion won and 223.6 billion won, respectively.

But Norwegians opted to dump Korean stocks worth a net 141.1 billion won, followed by Bermuda Island with a net 124.7 billion won and China from 92.8 billion won.

Foreigners also bought a net 500 billion won in the local bond market last month, extending its buying streak to three straight months.

Their ownership reached 100.5 trillion won, piercing the 100 trillion won level for the first time in 15 months.

Chinese investors were the biggest buyers with a net 318.5 billion won, followed by the French with a net 300.7 billion won and Indonesians with 254.7 billion won, the watchdog said. (Yonhap)